Business

On Wednesday (March 18), Israel attacked Iran's South Pars gas field, targeting onshore refinery units and gas storage tanks in Asaluyeh as well as offshore facilities connected to the gas field. In retaliation, Iran quickly hit back with missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar's main energy hub, Ras Laffan Industrial City, the largest liquified natural gas (LNG) export facility in the world. The Ras Laffan facility encompasses nearly 300 square kilometers (116 square miles) and sustained "extensive damage," according to QatarEnergy, the state-owned company that runs it in partnership with ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies and Shell. It was the first time an actual fossil fuel production site had been hit since the war started on February 28. Up until thi...

Standing in a 1960s industrial building by the German Baltic Sea coast, Florian Grose, holds a dosimeter as he moves towards a corner of the room. It starts beeping furiously. "That's around 10 microsieverts," he says, dressed in protective overalls. A normal dose rate is under 0.2 microsieverts. "This is an area where I'd say we maybe should move a meter away. You shouldn't stand or lie here for an hour," Grose, a radiation protection worker, warns in a disarmingly jovial tone. Inside special building one of the former nuclear power plant, parts of the wall are uneven and pockmarked — the result of workers hammering off layers of concrete, hunting for radioactive contamination. It's been one of the "most difficult buildings to decontaminate and dismantle," explains Kurt Radlof, who hand...

A well-known stock market proverb says: "Buy when the cannons are firing." In other words, in times of war and uncertainty, people should invest. Those looking to protect their wealth and assets often turn to gold — even though gold is rarely cheap in turbulent times. In times of crises, such as a pandemic or a war, demand for gold typically rises. This stronger demand tends to push prices higher, as it did in the first weeks of this year. If prices continue to rise, investments in gold not only preserve wealth but also potentially increase it. So is the current environment a boon for speculators? Gold is generally less of a speculative investment and more of a safe-haven asset. This has been reflected in the gold price's recent development, which has repeatedly reached new highs — mirr...

When 32 countries this week moved to tap their emergency crude oil stockpiles in an effort to steady soaring oil prices, the gesture was quickly overshadowed by Iran's escalating strikes in the Strait of Hormuz. The members of the International Energy Agency (IEA), a coalition of major energy‑consuming nations, agreed on Wednesday to release hundreds of millions of barrels of oil from their strategic oil reserves. Instead of helping oil prices lower, the price of Brent crude rose around the $100 (€87.30) a barrel mark toward the end of the week, having spiked to $119.50 for a short time on Monday. Around the announcement, Iran intensified its attacks near or in Hormuz, striking multiple commercial vessels — including oil tankers and cargo ships — with projectiles, drones and explosives....

The easing of sanctions on Russian oil by the United States is aimed at cooling global energy prices as the US-Israel war on Iran continues. It also provides a significant boost to the Kremlin at a time when Russia desperately needs it. The measure, announced by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on social media on Thursday, has been widely expected since the United States eased sanctions on Russian oil sales to India last week. The decision is a broadening of that original waiver, which focused on cargoes of Russian oil already at sea, to include countries other than India. Bessent said the measure was "temporary" and played down criticism that it would provide significant extra revenue to Russia. "This narrowly tailored, short-term measure applies only to oil already in transit and w...

The world is naturally fixated on the oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers missing from the Strait of Hormuz due to the Iran war. After all, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman carries around a fifth of global crude and LNG exports from the Gulf to the rest of the world. The more fragile cargo, however, is the fertilizer that helps feed the world and the food imports that keep Arabian Gulf states like the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia alive.  Gulf nations account for 20% of global traded volumes of key fertilizers such as ammonia, phosphates and sulfur, data from the maritime intelligence company Signal Group show. Nearly half the world's traded urea — the most widely used nitrogen fertilizer — comes from the Gulf region, with Qatar acc...

Honda has warned it expects a huge hit to its finances because of a major reorientation of its electric vehicle (EV) strategy.  Japan's second-largest carmaker tried to lead the charge on electric motoring but it says that US policy changes and tariffs, coupled with reduced competitiveness in Asia, are forcing it to adjust.  German performance carmaker Porsche suffered a similar hit to its balance sheet in 2025 amid the same bid to partially pull the plug on EVs, with news of its almost obliterated annual profits released earlier this week.  What did Honda say on the matter?  "Honda believed EVs would be the optimal solution from a long-term perspective. Based on this belief, Honda shifted its strategic direction towards the popularization of EVs," the company said on Thursday.  It sa...

Coordinated efforts to keep oil prices and fuel prices at filling stations in check began to emerge on Wednesday in Germany and elsewhere. The moves come amid the fast-rising prices caused by the attacks on Iran and wider conflict in the region.  "The oil market challenges we are facing are unprecedented in scale, therefore I am very glad that IEA member countries have responded with an emergency collective action of unprecedented size," International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol said on Wednesday. Germany, Austria, Japan, France, Spain all signal movement German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche called a lunchtime press conference in Berlin, a day after Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil had said the government was open to releasing some of its reserves. Reiche tol...

It was with obvious pride that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk took to social media on February 6. Sharing a picture of an article in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung titled "The Poles Are Coming", he wrote: "See how this phrase has changed over the past 30 years. The German press reports that our companies are increasingly taking over established Western brands, not the other way around. Poland is coming to its senses." The article he referenced was about an apparently growing trend: Polish companies acquiring and buying stakes in Western companies, including many in Germany. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, companies from Poland announced 22 acquisitions in Western Europe last year, the most on record. Germany has been a particular target, accounting for...

The Trump administration's decision to ease sanctions on Russian oil sales to India in order to address potential supply issues has raised questions about Washington's resolve on the issue. After announcing a 30-day waiver on Thursday (March 5) to allow Indian refiners to buy Russian oil again, the White House has now opened the door to possible further loosening of the sanctions against Moscow. "To ease the temporary gap of oil around the world, we have given them permission to accept the Russian oil. We may unsanction other Russian oil," US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News. The easing of sanctions on India represented a major policy shift. When President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a trade agreement last month, a major component of the deal wa...